Russia to start flight tests of 5th-generation fighter by yearend

KOMSOMOLSK-ON-AMUR, May 11 (RIA Novosti) - A Russian deputy prime minister said Monday that flight tests of a fifth-generation fighter will start in Russia by the end of 2009.

"By the end of this year, the plane will rise into the air and flight tests will begin," Sergei Ivanov told journalists after a shipbuilding meeting in the Far East, adding that serial production will start in 2010.

Russia's advanced multirole fighter is being developed by the Sukhoi aircraft maker, part of the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC), along with India's Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), under a preliminary intergovernmental agreement signed in October 2007.

The first prototype is scheduled to make its maiden flight before the end of 2009.